Volkswagen Group will electrify all 12 brands by 2030, needs gigafactories

First Volvo did it. Then Jaguar Land Rover did it. On Monday, Volkswagen Group signed up. On the eve of the Frankfurt Auto Show, VW Group chairman Matthias Müller committed his company to electrifying its entire lineup by 2030. “The transformation in our industry is unstoppable. And we will lead that transformation,” he said.

Like Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover, VW Group is pledging to have an electric version of each of its new models available; it is not promising that it will build only electric and hybrid vehicles. But the 12 brands under the VW Group umbrella collectively sell many more cars than either Sweden’s Volvo or Britain’s Jag, so we are still talking about an awful lot of EVs.

80 new EVs?

In fact, Müller says there will be 80 new electric vehicles by 2030, plus 30 plug-in hybrids and 50 battery EVs. Expect to see an EV in every segment—electric supercars from Lamborghini and EV superminis from Seat—as well as EVs for sale in every one of VW Group’s markets around the world.